One of the things Tony Russo is most proud of is establishing a franchise operation that still manages to provide quality and consistency across all of their stores. That hasn't been an easy road. Russo started out as many restaurateurs do: in a tiny little eight-seat restaurant preparing his family's recipes as we learned in part one of our chef chat. .

The difference between Russo and most restaurant owners, though, is that he developed his concepts and products into something that, with the right training and support, is repeatable by other restaurant owners.

The effort paid off. Russo's New York Pizzeria has gone international, with locations as far away as Dubai. In part 2 of our chef chat, we'll learn about Russo's strong preferences when it comes to Italian ingredients and how the company has evolved to provide a complete support system to franchisees.

EOW: So, Russo's makes its own dough in-house?

AR: We make our own dough in-house, the salad dressings, the pastas-- all made in-house.

EOW: I noticed something else while I've been here. It's not just pizzas.

AR: Right. It's pastas, salads and sandwiches. At a typical pizzeria in New York they had a little bit of pasta, a little bit of pizza, calzones and salads. It's usually a very small menu And that's what I developed here. I call it the Little Italy experience. You get a slice of pizza, you get pastas, gnocchi, lasagnas--you have choices.

EOW: After your first franchisee, how did Russo's continue to grow and take off?

AR: I wanted to make sure they were very successful. To me, it's all about quality. They did really well at the Beechnut location and I used it as validation. When I got new people interested, I said, "Go talk to Thomas at Beechnut." That helped me build the concept. Investors would listen to the franchisees tell the story. Once they tasted the food, they were sold. They could see the quality.

My dad always said, "if it's not fresh, don't serve it," and he's right. If it's not fresh, don't serve it to your customers.

EOW: That's a good methodology. What about your ingredients? What's important to you?

AR: I source everything personally. It's very important. I don't rely on my distributor to tell me, "Use this cheese. Use this flour." I just stick to what I knew best growing up. I know what kind of flour and mozzarella to use. I negotiate directly with the manufacturer and then my distributor carries my product. We use fresh-packed tomatoes on our pizzas, which are hard to find. No additives; no preservatives. When you smell our tomatoes, you can smell the aroma because it's fresh. It's good quality stuff.

We use Prosciutto di Parma from Italy. There is domestic prosciutto, but I don't care for it. When we make a salad dressing with balsamic, I'm going to make sure it's been aged for at least 18 months and it's from Modena, Italy. If it's not from Modena, I don't want it! (laughs)

Parmesan has to be real Parmesan and if it's pecorino, it has to be Pecorino Romano. There's a domestic Pecorino, but it's not made with sheep's milk--it's made with cow's.

EOW: I notice you have desserts, too.

AR: We make our own tiramisu and cannoli. The cheesecakes are made in New York at a place called Rocco's Bakery in Little Italy and shipped here.

EOW: Have you ever been disappointed with any of your franchisees? Have you ever had to deal with one who wasn't doing it the way that you taught them?

AR: Yeah, at the beginning we had some issues with quality control. I was expanding and they were busy with their operations. Sometimes, they needed a little guidance. I was building my infrastructure and hiring more staff to assist with additional training. So, that was challenging. When you're building your franchise, you need to think about that, too-- the support team.

Every one [of the franchisees] were very happy. When they start complaining about it is when they're not making money. Since they were busy making money, they understood it was a growing company. Most of those folks are still on board today.

EOW: What was your first out-of-state location?

AR: Germantown, Tennessee.

EOW: How long ago was that?

AR: Nine years ago.

EOW: How many locations, total, are there now?

AR: 41 locations open today. We have locations in Florida, Tennessee and Oklahoma. We recently opened up a location in Hawaii and we have four locations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East.

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